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Sandison wins by-election

THE CHAIRMAN of Scalloway Community Council and general manager of Shetland Aquaculture, Davie Sandison, has been elected new councillor for the Shetland Central ward.

Mr Sandison won the seat in a by-election called after the resignation of Iris Hawkins.

Beating five other candidates, Mr Sandisonâs election was declared just before 11am on Friday morning after only two rounds of counting under the single transferable voting system.

The turnout for the by-election was 30.45 per cent with 686 valid votes cast. Mr Sandison needed 344 votes to be elected.

Mr Sandison said he would spend the months listening and learning before the local government election in May where he will stand for re-election.

âI am absolutely delighted that folk in Scalloway and in the central ward thought me worthy of their vote. I am glad I got such a strong vote and look forward to representing the community.â

âI am fully aware that I am not going to make any great impact in just three months. So I will do a lot of listening, learning and assessing the situation to understand how the whole council actually operates. It is a big job to get that done in just three months.

âThe issues my constituents are concerned about are not necessarily those you hear in the news reporting. The issues for most people are about housing, jobs, public transport and planning,â he said.

The full result was: Davie Sandison (352 votes), Stephan Morgan (124), Ian Scott (115) and Robert Williamson (81). Clive Richardson (29) and Scotty van der Tol (27) dropped out after the first round of counting.Â